Strong growth in the market for specialty pumps

Pumps and pump systems for ships work under conditions where the requirements for reliability of operation are extremely high – therefore they are subject to strict control.

A failure in open sea can have serious financial consequences on a top modern container ship, which is why the requirements for operation and quality are very high. And that is precisely the reason why Grundfos pumps are coveted for a number of purposes in national and international shipping.

As more and more ships are built all over the world, the demand for certified pumps and pump systems has increased considerably, and this applies to ships for civil shipping, the navy and offshore activities, i.e. primarily in the oil and gas industry, alike.

Notable growth rate
Most recently, a container ship called Gudrun Maersk has had Grundfos pumps installed for a number of different purposes. Gudrun Maersk is the latest addition to AP Moller’s extensive fleet of container ships and the largest container ship to have been launched anywhere in the world. She is 367 metres long and loads at least 7,500 containers.
Grundfos has supplied pumps for water supply, fire fighting and for the water supply to the main boiler plant at Gudrun Maersk, and all the pumps are certified in accordance with an international standard. The certification guarantees that the pumps meet the norms and standards required for the task.

Unique certification
On behalf of Odense Staalskibsværft A/S, which has built and delivered Gudrun Maersk to AP Moller, Chief Engineer Rasmus Jensen stresses that certification is an ultimate requirement.
”In view of insurance, but also operation, we demand that central areas of the ship be equipped with products that are certified by one of the internationally acknowledged classification companies. When we use Grundfos pumps, these things are in order. Furthermore, Grundfos has a worldwide service network, meaning that regardless of where we are in the world, we can get spare parts and service within short periods of time. In connection with a ship that costs enormous amounts of money to sail per hour, this is of course a very important parameter”, says Rasmus Jensen.

Worldwide
Not just Danish shipyards and suppliers to the shipping industry are demanding certified Grundfos pumps. Brian Lemvig Hagerup and Per Linderoth Klausen are responsible for the correct issue of all certificates.
”Globally, we supply to a good handful of companies. And we know for certain that they are demanding more and more products. But we have also noted that every now and then we get new customers”, says Brian Lemvig Hagerup.
Grundfos has delivered certified pumps since the end of the 1980s.
”The documentation usually takes place in two ways. We either carry out the certification ourselves, and that is quite unique – that a company gets to certify its own products. Or in other cases, the certification takes place in cooperation with people from one of the classification companies”.

Facts

Grundfos delivers certified pumps of the following types:

LP, CR, AP, NK, NB and CLM.

Other pump types can also be certified.

The vast majority of the certified pumps are of the CR type, and Grundfos also offers this type of pump in a titanium version, which resists chloric liquids.